Father in heaven, You are a gracious God, and You have poured out blessing after blessing upon our heads. You have established the lines for us in pleasant places. We have opened our mouths, and You have filled them. We have turned to You, and You have bestowed Your covenant kindness upon us. We thank …
Fullness and Overflow
Who are you? What are you doing here? How did it come about that you are now here? The instruments used by God are many, but the fundamental answer is that you are here at worship because you have been called, summoned. God wants you to hear His Word. He requires you to worship Him, …
Faithfulness Is Full of Faith
If we do not think about what we are doing here, and if we do not think about it in faith, then we are just so many donkeys gathered in a stable. The New Testament teaches plainly that a Christian gathering, in the name of the Lord Jesus, on the Lord’s Day, can do more …
Heretical Cooties
I recently wrote to Steve Wilkins, saying that it was almost time for him to come up to Moscow again, bringing some of his heretical cooties with him. We were almost out, I said. He wrote back, somewhat too triumphantly I am afraid, with something about him having been declared fully orthodox by the Louisiana …
Preparation for the Word
We are gathered here this morning so that God might govern us, and so that the Lord Jesus Christ might demonstrate His rule among us. There are many ways that this is shown in the service of worship, but one of the central ones is seen in the way we listen to the Word of …
Day of Deliverance
Our Lord and God, we call upon Your name in celebration, as we recall how You bared Your right arm on behalf of our fathers. We are children of liberty because of their gifts to us, and we pray that we would be faithful to the inheritance they have left for us. This is Reformation …
Lord of the Fingertips
Your worldview is not what you think — that is, in another sense, your worldview is not limited to what you are thinking. Your worldview comes out your fingertips, and expresses itself, incarnationally, in what you are doing. In making a salad, spanking a child, caressing your wife, or holding a communion cup, you are …
The Olivet Discourse
The words of Christ in the twenty-fourth chapter of Matthew have caused far more consternation and confusion than they really should have. The key, as before, is to look at how the passages quoted from the Old Testament are used in the New Testament, and then at how the events of the first century actually …
God Restores All His People
God delights to restore His people, and we are convinced that He is in the process of doing so. At the same time, be aware that the enemy of our souls does not leave such restorations unopposed. We will be attacked, and we will be attacked where we are the weakest. When God restores His …
Arranged On The Altar
The Word of God is like a very sharp sword, and the Bible teaches us that preparation for worship is actually preparation to be cut in pieces so that God might place us on His altar. As He does this, we ascend before Him in the smoke of the burnt offering. Our prayers, our psalms, …